I'm looking to purchase my first home with a yard large enough for a 160 to 10 meter dipole. How large of a lot will I need to raise one? An acre? Two acres. Can I bend the dipole slightly to accomodate a smaller lot? Or, rather than use one dipole for all the HF bands, should I string up a number of single band dipoles? I need some measurements so I can inform my realtor.

This sounds like an April Fools' question, but in case you're serious:

A 160m dipole is 260 feet long if cut for 1.800 MHz. I would normally cut one for 1.835 or so, to use it on both CW and phone. That would make it 255' long, instead.

Assuming you want 10' on each end of the dipole for support ropes and some sort of support structures (trees, poles, whatever), this will occupy 265' of horizontal space. If you want a lot that is that large in both directions, so you can orient a dipole in any direction you wish, that would require a 1.6 acre lot.

Kind of a silly waste of 1.6 acres. A better antenna, and one which will work on more HF bands without the use of traps or other tuning elements would be a 160m full-wave loop. That would only require 127 feet "per side" for a perfectly square loop. Assuming ten foot long wire ropes tied in all four corners to support it, the resulting property required for a "square" loop is less than 1/2-acre. And it's put to much better use supporting a loop.

Thanks WB2WIK for the info. You're right. 1.6 acres of yard is a silly waste for a 160 meter dipole. However, I never thought of a 160 meter full wave loop. Thanks again for the suggestion. By the way, when it comes to ham radio, I don't go in for those April Fools jokes. Hi, Hi.

Alot of hams put out a good siginal on 160 meters with a coax inverted L. I run one also. On a small lot. If you have a support like a tree, tower, etc. 50 ft up. If you are anyone else wants to try one they can e-mail me at ku4uk@aol.com

Hi Tom,Depending on how serious you are about 160M, it is possible to load a full sized dipole cut for 80M if it is fed with ladder line and an out board tuner and balun are used.I would suggest that height above ground for the feed point is more important. An inverted "L"with plenty of radials would do a better job on 160. The above mentioned dipole will load upand do a fine job on 160 M through 10 M if one can get the height above ground.GL HTH,Rob

I agree with the comments about the inverted L. GREAT antenna for 160 on a smaller lot if fed against a modest graound planne with ladder line thru a wide tuner. It's what I use and it really loads up easily on 80 and 160. Mine is 1/2 wave on 80m bent into an L, with the bend about 45 feet up.

If you don't feel like 'rolling your own', there are some mighty good "trapless" comercially available loaded multiband dipoles that perform very well and will take full legal power. Companies such as Hy Power and Bill (W9INN) produce a variety of these, which are solidly built and can be tuned for whatever part of the bands you want to work.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've been busy the last few weeks looking to buy my first home. I'm finalizing purchase on a home in the country with lots of space and numerous 160 meter opportunities. Thanks again,Tom, N8EUI

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